After hearing about the increasing chatter that dems want additional taxes on the upper class and the closure of more tax loopholes tell me in the next round of negotiations what leverage do they have? From what I can tell the next round will revolve around the mandatory spending cuts. What is to stop the republicans other than bad press from saying cut spending on else?

quote:I approve cutting spending. Romney could not articulate what he would cut, except BigBird. What else?

I'm still waiting.

The problem is, when either side proposes or does anything, the other side beats them over the head with it. Just look at the last election. Romney and Ryan bashed Obama for cutting Medicare by the same amount that Ryan proposed to cut Medicare which Obama bashed Ryan for wanting to cut Medicare.

Obamacare sets up death panels. Republicans want to push Granny over the cliff.

Incredibly underfunded and inspectors should be paid for by the companies just like building contractors do anyway.

quote:blind entitlement programs

You aren't cutting social security or medicaid, and you really shouldn't raise taxes to fix the system for another 10-20 years anyway. Not too early to plan though. Retirement age could be raised a year or two, but that doesn't solve the problem, does it?

re: Future negotiationsPosted by Bard on 1/7/13 at 2:13 pm to mmcgrath

quote:

quote:EPA

Incredibly underfunded and inspectors should be paid for by the companies just like building contractors do anyway.

Underfunded? Bull shite. When they have enough funding to pull this kind of shit then they either they are funded well enough or they are squandering their funding on ridiculous crap.

quote:Virginia officials scored a key victory Thursday in their battle with the Environmental Protection Agency over what EPA critics describe as a land takeover.

U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady in Alexandria ruled late Thursday that the EPA exceeded its authority by attempting to regulate stormwater runoff into a Fairfax County creek as a pollutant. O'Grady sided with the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which challenged EPA's stormwater restrictions

"Stormwater runoff is not a pollutant, so EPA is not authorized to regulate it," O'Grady said.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says the ruling could ultimately save Virginia taxpayers more than $300 million.

An EPA spokesman could not be reached for comment after business hours.

The EPA, citing an abundance of stormwater runoff, had proposed a plan that Virginia officials said could cost homeowners and businesses their private property.

The EPA contended that water itself can be regulated as a pollutant if there's too much of it. The agency says heavy runoff is having a negative impact on Accotink Creek and that it has the regulatory authority to remedy the situation.

Cuccinelli, a Republican, argued what the EPA has proposed is "illegal," and he's not alone in the fight. He was joined in the lawsuit against the federal agency by the Democratic-controlled Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

In legal filings, the EPA says that its plan is "in harmony with the broader purposes" of the Clean Water Act, including "reducing the water quality impacts of stormwater."

"There is no possibility of homes being removed in this process," Simon Rosenberg, founder of the New Democrat Network, said. He called the claim by Cuccinelli an "overstatement."

Coming from a farming family, community and background I can tell you with first-hand certainty that a lot of the folks working for the EPA go around LOOKING for things to be in charge of. Years ago one of their employees went looking around my neighbors farm and tried to fine them for making a 5-foot ditch to drain some excess standing water from a corner of their field into the drainage ditch (all of which was well-encompassed by their property). He said it posed "an evironmental hazard" even though the field drains into the ditch anyway when a decent shower comes along.

They may do some good in some places, but in my experience they are busy-bodies looking to create work so they can stay employed.

quote:The problem is, when either side proposes or does anything, the other side beats them over the head with it. Obamacare sets up death panels. Republicans want to push Granny over the cliff.

This. The biggest leaks in the fiscal boat are Social Security and Medicare (with Defense being third, and not by much). Everyone knows it but no one has the political balls to do anything about it because if they do they won't get re-elected and no one goes to DC to serve only one term.

IRS will pay interest on delayed refunds, has happened before. Just would love to see all the libs/progressives screaming about not receiving THEIR ENTITLEMENT of child credit & earned income tax credit.